


Dragon Age Inquisition: A New Stablemate

by Shadow_Chaser



Series: Tales of the Bog Unicorn [6]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bog Unicorn and dracolisk become besties by food fight, Bog Unicorn shenanigans, Don't mess with Vivienne - she is scary, Gen, How the Inquisitor acquired the Dragon Throne Room Chair, How to feed a dracolisk, I love the bog unicorn, It's turning into the Skyhold Menagerie of Weird and Unusual Creatures, Vivienne prefers the dracolisk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-09
Packaged: 2018-02-28 18:45:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2743193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/pseuds/Shadow_Chaser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tales of the Bog Unicorn VI - Skyhold is now home to a dracolisk and a bog unicorn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragon Age Inquisition: A New Stablemate

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes:  
> Bog Unicorn. Nuff said. Also, human female mage – aka Lady Trevelyan. Yes, she has a first name, no I am not using her first name. She can be your Lady Trevelyan or mine. She's also romancing Cullen at this point, but it's a really slow burn of a pairing (aka, they're both a bit oblivious).
> 
> Fair Warning: Major spoilers for picking a side in the Mage-Templar War (post-In Your Heart Shall Burn questline) and onwards. You have been warned.

DAI: A New Stablemate

by: Shadow Chaser

 

**Story:**

 

“One day, you're going to tell me the story of just what kinds of animals you took care of while you were at Ostwick's Circle,” Cullen murmured absently as Trevelyan stood next to him.

“I'll have to be either very drunk or in a Wicked Grace game when that happens,” Trevelyan muttered underneath her breath with a crooked grin on her face. Together the two of them watched from the middle of the main stairs as the latest acquisition for the Inquisition was gingerly brought in, led by Cullen's scouts that had volunteered to bait and trap the creature somewhere in the Dales.

“But it's not me you have to worry about this time, Commander,” she teased lightly, “it's Madame de Fer's idea to ask for a rare of a mount as a...uh...what's it called again?”

“Dracolisk,” Cullen supplied and Trevelyan nodded, noting that all work had stopped around the area as the creature was led in, it's serpentine beak snapping at the small raw meats the handlers threw at it once every few steps. “I think...a Hunter Shade Dracolisk? At least that was what the missives I received from the Madame herself.”

“I knew Iron Bull _really liked_ dragons-”

“It is too early for me to even think of what he said after all of you returned from killing the Ferelden Frostback. I did  _not_ need to know that translation of that Qunari phrase thank you very much,” Cullen cut her off with a shake of his head as he shot her a look to which her grin only got wider.

“I meant to say, never realized Vivienne preferred something that looks like a horse mated with a dragonling and spat it back out,” she continued before shrugging, “still, it does have some pretty scales and colors on it. Almost like a venomous snake or something...”

“Of course, darling,” Vivienne's imperious voice above and behind them made them turn to see her descending the stairs, a pleased look on her face, “ah, Commander, your men have successfully lured it out. I do hope that none of them were injured in the attempt. The dracolisk's venom is quite...deadly in the dissolving kind.”

“My men heeded your warnings to the letter, Lady Vivienne,” Cullen said respectfully with a quick nod as she brushed past them on her way down to where the dracolisk was herded towards the stables area.

Trevelyan watched with some fascination as Vivienne reached out to the dracolisk with one bold hand, letting the creature snap at her, close enough that she thought the mage was going to lose her arm. But the First Enchanter did not seem phased by the dracolisk's attempts to eat her before it snorted, smokey breath filtering from its serpentine nose and its slit lidless eyes. It stamped the ground with its lizard-like feet several times before it finally lowered its head and stared at Vivienne with a baleful glare, but seemed to acquiesce to her stroking it once in between its eyes before tapping it once on its horned head.

“Madam de Fer...” Trevelyan breathed out and out of the corner of her eyes, saw Cullen nod in agreement. Vivienne was scary...

“How's Sog-er-your bog unicorn going to cope with its new stablemate?” Cullen suddenly asked and Trevelyan was startled out of her reverie as she realized he had almost called her bog unicorn by name – besides the fact that he had actually called Soggy a  _bog unicorn_ .

“I think he'll be fine...” she shrugged as Vivienne took a bridle and tack that had been gingerly handed to her by one of the scouts and swiftly put it on the dracolisk before leading it towards the stables.

She hoped Soggy would be fine with his new stablemate.

* * *

There was only one spot on the barnyard loft that Trevelyan had been able to sneak towards and hide in without alerting her bog unicorn. It was also a perfect cover to watch others interact with Soggy, to see her bog unicorn happy even when she was not there. She had noted several times since Soggy had been stabled at Skyhold that her bog unicorn was extremely attuned to her presence and it seemed that this spot was either downwind or a blind spot of sorts that she had been able to hide in and watch her bog unicorn without the creature reacting to her presence.

So now, she watched from her spot as Solas finished petting Soggy, leaving him with a small bucket of maggots and severely rotting cheese that the kitchens had said was not even safe to consume. The Fade dreamer had also brought in fresh goat meat, harvested from the thrown goats that Morvan the Under had threw against Skyhold in a misguided attempt to get at Tevinter. Sending Morvan and his clan to Tevinter with as many weapons as they could carry had been the best judgment in her opinion – and had brought a lot of smiles to everyone's faces so soon after they had escaped from Haven.

The bucket of goat meat had been placed carefully in front of the dracolisk's stall, the creature having refused all manner of meats except those fed by Vivienne or Solas. The elf had explained that he had spent time in many ruins and encountered many rare and unusual creatures that he understood how a dracolisk, especially one captured to become a mount, needed to be taken care of and fed. That had gotten Trevelyan to wondering if Solas had ever ridden a dracolisk, but the elf was mum on that point.

Task done, Solas petted Soggy gently on his sharp bony nose and headed out of the stables. She heard him stop a bit away, talking with someone, but instead focused her attention on Soggy who was happily eating away in the trough full of maggots. Her bog unicorn looked happy, unlike how dismayed he was after he had gotten his “horn” accidentally stuck in the Ferelden Frostback's soft palate. Even with the Frostback's head decapitated, Soggy had to carry the dragon skull back to Skyhold, no amount of force, even by Iron Bull, could dislodge it without ripping the sword out of Soggy's own head. The bog unicorn had been miserable and they had made for a very unusual sight when they had arrived at Skyhold. Josie summed up most of the keep's inhabitants' thoughts with a shriek and jaw dropping to the ground.

Cullen had been more concerned about the cuts, scraps, and bruises they had suffered, and to her slight embarrassment, more about  _her_ bleeding injuries, but had also been equally concerned about the bleeding, dripping dragon head stuck on Soggy's head. She had supported Soggy's heavy load on its head with a strengthening binding spell that had left her all but exhausted after they had returned to Skyhold. Solas had been called as Soggy was stabled, albeit snorting and whinnying about the still-stuck-dragon-head as it laid on the ground. She did not know what Solas did to free the dragon head from Soggy's horn, but after she woke up two days later, had come down from her quarters on Josie's insistence to see that the dragon's head had been turned into a fine throne room chair and that Soggy was somewhat back to normal. It was also then that she heard that Dorian had been involved in helping Solas and figured the Tevinter mage knew better about necromancy and undead things, especially in regards to what Soggy was, to help her bog unicorn. She had been very touched by her two friends' help with Soggy and had repaid them with a few runes she had Dagna specially made for them.

Soggy usually interacted with the other horses in the stables by snorting at them, whinnying like a regular horse, but in the times she had spied her mount from her hiding spot, the horses seemed to shy mostly away from the bog unicorn – more than likely finding him too repulsive or unusual to be considered one of their own. Most animals and creatures were like that, using scent and other subtle signals to communicate.

She watched as Soggy suddenly lifted his head from the trough to  _spit,_ of all things, at the dracolisk in the stable across from him. Flecks of half-chewed maggots flew and hit the dracolisk in the face and the serpentine-dragon-like creature snorted and flicked its tongue out, tasting the air. At the same time, its forked tongue lashed all around its face,  _licking_ the half-chewed maggots away before glaring balefully at Soggy who bobbed his head up and down as if laughing.

Trevelyan stifled a muffled laugh before her eyes widened at the sight of the dracolisk suddenly using its forked tongue to grab the handle in the small bucket with the precision of fingers and  _threw_ its contents at Soggy. The bucket clattered as Soggy danced away from the falling meats smacking into wooden boards with a wet pulpy sound, snorting and pawing at the ground before the dracolisk gave several hisses. Trevelyan realized that the dracolisk was  _laughing_ , and very human-like too. She turned back to see Soggy lift a foot up and paw at something in his stable before lowering his head. He reappeared a second later, chewing absently on one of the fresh goat meats that had been thrown at him, and she swore that she saw the smarmiest smile on her bog unicorn's face – if one could call it that.

Soggy had made a new best friend.

 

~END~

 

**Author's Note:**

> Soggy's full name is - Soggy Uncorn the Bog Unicorn. He was named by my beta reader Legume_Shadow


End file.
